Thursday, September 30, 2010

Markets in Everything: Ads on Currency?

Maybe this would help pay down the federal debt: sell advertising on U.S. currency? Here are some possible designs that would allow companies to "cashvertise," including the one above for Campbell Soup.

This blog points out that the USPS currently allows customized "branded stamps," so maybe the Bureau of Engraving and Printing should follow with "custom branded dollar bills."

Even better would be to pass Ron Paul's Free Competition in Currency Act. It would break the monopoly of the Fed's dollar bills and allow private companies to issue their own. (Nobody would be forced into accepting them, but they could be used in mutually-agreed upon contracts.)